Undead Horde Steam Early Access Launch Date Revealed
Finally! We have a launch date for Undead Horde Early Access. It is March 6th! We're roughly 3 months behind our estimated schedule which isn't too bad considering this is a brand new game. Lately we've been talking of launch during February, but it became quite crowded so we opted to delay just a bit more.
The Undead are Calling All Streamers and Content Creators!
We've started sending out alpha keys for streamers and content creators! We're reaching out ourselves, but we're probably missing a lot of people also.
If you are a streamer / content creator and want to play this in-development alpha version, contact us at undeadhorde(ät)10tons(döt)com and apply for a code with your channel details. There's a limited amount of codes so we can't promise a code for everyone but we'll try our best. The latest version can be streamed and recorded and your journey with the undead can be shared - there's 5-8 hours of game already done!
Holiday Special - Free Demo Available
Happy holidays! Our gift to you is a special custom made Undead Horde demo - the Holiday Special. The little elves at 10tons have been hard at work for the whole week preparing this gift.
Please note that this version is a short demo so it covers only some parts of the actual main game. The actual main game is more extensive and more complex in many ways. It is also balanced a bit differently since the play time is limited but it should give you the general idea of the basics.
In this demo an elf accidentally unleashes the ancient evil. You then get to invade Xmasland and create an undead army of elves. But there's an adversary - St. Nick! Can you defeat him?
Undead Horde Holiday Special is available on itch.io for free: https://10tons.itch.io/undead-horde-holiday-special
December Update - Testing and Release Dates
Hi everyone! We have a few pieces of news for this month. I also bring you a gif of this bear showing his undead on/off modes!
We're currently in the midst of closed alpha testing. The wider testing started around Nov 20 and we have 25+ testers playing the game. We're getting feedback constantly and making improvements and fixing bugs every day. Thanks to all the testers so far - keep th feedback coming!
If you'd like to apply to become a tester, visit http://undeadhorde.com and sign up for the newsletter. With this newsletter you'll get news of Undead Horde and some other selected 10tons products. We do not send e-mails very often in any case - usually only about Undead Horde developments and major 10tons events like new games. More importantly: We randomly select people from the list to receive testing invites.
Originally we wanted to bring the game into early access late November. However, we're roughly 3-4 weeks behind the original schedule and this would have resulted in us releasing the early-access just about now, which is in the midst of the big title holiday marketing season. Which is not desireable. We decided to push the date forwards - after the holidays. Hopefully we find a good date in January.
Also, we're getting a lot of feedback from our testers, so we're already involving people in a smaller scale and we're not developing in the "10tons vacuum" any more in any case. Which is good :)
Check Out the New Trailer!
We uploaded the latest version of our latest trailer into Steam. Make sure to restart your client if you're not seeing "10tons presents" lines and an urn at the start of the trailer - the cache may show the old one. We're nearing extended external tests, so we're also updating the visuals here. Let us know what you think in the comments - we can improve it with your help when we do the next cut!
October Progress Update
Lately we've been reacting to playtesting feedback (internal tests & focus testing) and creating more content. This has changed the game in various ways and next we need to rebalance the current playable experience.
We hoped to reach external testing phase sooner, but we felt we must react to internal & focus test feedback first to learn something substantially new from external tests. 10tons also moved to a new office space in October which caused some slowdown in our progress as well. In the end we're a bit behind in our schedule but at the moment we're progressing fast and we might have a bit more content done this week than originally planned.
One of the things we've added are some dungeon levels. And of course there are some interesting traps in dungeons. We've adapted some classic trap mechanics to be used in a leader+horde setting as we have in Undead Horde. In this post you can see a pressure plate fire puzzle where you need to time your commands right to avoid getting burned to ashes.
We're hoping to have a really mature version with over 6 hours of gameplay this week. When we have this, we'll start thinking of wider external tests.
August Progress Update
Hello everyone! The summer is almost gone. We did some vacationing during Jun and July (In Finland everyone has around 30 days of paid vacation per year mandated by law) and then returned to developing in early August. Here's our latest work list in rough detail.
- Polishing the game for external focus testing
- Executing the focus tests - thanks to all our focus testers!
- Started reacting to focus test feedback and impressions
- Preparing for a larger external test
Personally I'm working with the feature "Magic Mines" at the very moment. You can do some cool and bloody puzzles with these things. In the gif the Necromancer uses his minions as an undead mine clearing tool!
Leveling & Subclasses
In Undead Horde you'll level up as in many games with RPG elements. When leveling up you earn points which you can spend on three different subclasses.
Here's our current level up screen. It still needs improvement and polish, but it should give you the basic idea.
Here you can spend points on various subclasses. Each choice improves the necromancer attributes a bit differently. The choice depends on your desired playstyle.
If you like to beat the hell out of the enemies the Executioner helps with that. If you'd like to have a large horde, you should spend points on Re-Animator. If you like to cast spells a lot, then spend points on Arcanist.
You can also mix and match as you will - however some items may have subclass rank requirements so you may need to rank up certain subclass to use them.
Here's an example of rank 10 arcanist attributes. Notice the large manapool.
The heart icon represents hit points, the mana potion is mana, the banner is command and the orange impact icon is the damage bonus. Your necromancer attributes will be the sum of the choices you've made along the way.
Arcanist focused Necromancer wreaking havoc with fireballs. With focus on Arcanist the larger mana pool allows extensive spell attacks.
Rank 10 Executioner. The damage bonus is +66% and the hit points are very high.
A necromancer with focus on Executioner showing of his signature weapon - the Scythe. Even after his horde is gone, he continues to fight since he has some hitpoints to spare.
The Scythe can be very effective as it hits multiple enemies. You need to spend some points on the Executioner subclass to use this weapon.
Rank 10 Re-Animator. Command cap at 41 is much higher than the others.
In this final image a Re-Animator focused necromancer commands his massive undead archer horde to attack and buffs them with flaming arrows.
Fountain of Undeath
Hi, just got this done and wanted to show it right away, spent the last 10 minutes staring at the screen while constantly refreshing the effect, so pretty...
The Fountain of Undeath restores the Necromancer to full health, and it is also where he will respawn if vanquished. Just don't go skinny dipping unless you're already dead, you have been warned.
In other news, Nordic Game 2018 was great and we received very encouraging feedback for our in-development titles (yes, there's more than one but it's a secret, shhh...). We are putting the finishing touches on the internal playable version, and it's looking very promising, yet so much polish to do.
We'll try to push a proper update later this month, before everyone runs off to engage in reckless sauna & skinny dipping activity. Thanks for reading!
May Progress Update!
Hello! I was meant to post this a week ago, but was down with the flu for couple days. The summer is short in Finland, this year it was on a Tuesday. However, the sun is a lie, turns out you still need to wear clothing for warmth even though it's nice and pretty outside.
Someone thought it would be a great idea to put a walking tower in the game, so we made an Ent (because that's the closest thing!) and blew through the polygon budget in the process. Just like with regular towers, you need to have a strategy to deal with these guys. Luckily, the Ents are flammable.
People have been asking about the controls and troop command method. Undead Horde uses WASD/twin-stick controls for the necromancer, allowing you to move and aim/smite independently.
Commanding the horde uses a leash/unleash system. Normally, the horde stays close to you, but you can also release the horde in the aim direction. The white arrows/chevrons in the gifs indicate where the horde was just unleashed. Your horde will then act independently until you choose to recall it.
The system is simple, but works really well in practice, giving you plenty of control over your horde while being intuitive to use with both kbd+mouse and controller.
We also came up with a cool progression system, among other things, but that deserves its own update. With that, the game is essentially feature complete, but lots of content and polish are still needed, of course. We are working hard to create an external playable version, but can't commit to a date for that yet.
Also, there are two people from 10tons at Nordic Game 2018 next week. If you want to do an interview, or just want to come say hello, the guys can probably still accommodate you. Feel free to tip off your favorite media outlet! Thanks for reading!
